Fab's a smash hit

The Italian simply blew away the Three Lions chiefs in his interview for the England manager’s job.The 61-year-old will be confirmed as the new boss and could be unveiled as early as tomorrow.

He flew in yesterday with his son and agent, Pierfilippo, who is also a lawyer, for talks at Wembley. Capello met FA chief executive Brian Barwick and director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking for more than three-and-a-half hours.

Adrian Bevington, director of communications, said: “I can confirm that Brian Barwick and Sir Trevor Brooking have today held talks with Fabio Capello in London.

Honour

“I am pleased to say these discussions were extremely positive and without any problems. “Fabio has tonight returned to Italy to ­honour a prior commitment. Understandably, further talks are now taking place between Fabio’s advisers and ourselves.” Pierfilippo has stayed behind in London to ­sort out the small print.

And Capello is expected to fly back to England tomorrow once the deal over his contract, which is expected to take him up to the end of the 2010 World Cup, is done and rubber-stamped by the FA Board.

The Italian does not want to take the FA to the cleaners, but they will need to pay at least £5m a season for the former Real Madrid and AC Milan boss.

The FA are happy they are speaking to a ­manager who has more authority than Steve McClaren and who they think will impress the players.

But while there has been a lot of talk about the possible backroom staff for Capello, nothing has been decided.